减少电子邮件超载

电子邮件是可以节省大量时间并浪费大量时间的事情之一。即使我们认为理所当然，能够将消息发送给全国各地的人并在数小时甚至数分钟内得到回复的想法是令人惊奇的。不幸的是，电子邮件已成为其自身成功的受害者，’每天都有大量的电子消息容易淹没。

在本文中，我们将探讨一些方法来帮助您 减少电子邮件过载 by looking at strategies and methods for getting the most out of 电子邮件 without letting it run 您r life.

多个邮箱

不是全部 电子邮件 is created equal. Some 电子邮件 您 never want to see. Other 电子邮件s are extremely urgent. Still others need 您r attention, but only when 您 get around to it. What I’我要描述的是一个系统，用于确保我可以根据电子邮件的优先级或当时的关注重点快速过滤掉电子邮件。该系统不是’t适合所有人，但目前看来对我的需求而言效果很好。

我有三个电子邮件地址/邮箱。我们将这些主要，次要和市场营销称为：

• 主邮箱 – This is the 电子邮件 address that 您 give to people who need to get a hold of 您 quickly. It is the one that shows up on 您r cell phone and the one 您 will check most regularly. This should probably be 您r primary business address.
• 次要电子邮件 – This is the address that 您 will give to people who 您 want to hear from, but there isn’t any harm in waiting a few days to get back to them. This address would go to 您r mom who might enjoy forwarding lots of jokes or to 您r friends from college. This is probably where 您r 脸书 不ifications would be sent. You also might use this address for companies 您 do business with and want to hear from about their sales, etc.
• 营销电子邮件 – This is what 您 use when 您 need to use an 电子邮件 address, but 您 don’t really want to hear from the entity unless 您 initiate the communication. You might only check this 电子邮件 every few days or few weeks. Use it on sites where 您 need to do 电子邮件 verification, but 您 don’t necessarily trust them. (This is the 电子邮件 address 您’d give to Omaha Steaks, since they seem to think 您’我有兴趣每周购买4到5次大量的牛排。）

我使用Apple Mail，它使我可以按时间顺序查看单个邮箱或一起查看所有邮箱的内容。如果我想专注于工作，则只看一下我的主电子邮件箱。如果我’我想赶上家人，我’我会看一下辅助邮箱。如果我’我只是检查我所有的邮件，我’将查看组合视图并快速删除所有不相关的内容。

Another twist on this strategy is to change 您r primary 电子邮件 address occasionally and forward the old one to 您r marketing 电子邮件 box. That way 您 don’t lose anything that comes in from people with an old address, but 您 can update people who are 您r current contacts and help reduce the amount of clutter 您 get in 您r primary inbox. This may 不 be necessary if 您 are careful who 您 give 您r 电子邮件 address out to, but for some people, it can be a simple way to clear everything out every few years or so.

批处理您的电子邮件

一次处理所有电子邮件 批量。你不’t want to deal with one 电子邮件, work on something else for 10 minutes, and then answer another one, etc. When 您 are in 电子邮件 mode, be in 电子邮件 mode, but don’t keep jumping back to 电子邮件 when 您 need to be working on other things.

最简单的方法之一 不 do this is to have 您r 不ifications set up to ding, dance, or bounce whenever an 电子邮件 comes in. The last thing 您 need is something jumping around on 您r screen or making noise every time a new messages hits 您r inbox. Turn off the 不ifications. The 电子邮件s will be there when 您 check them. Trust me, they won’t go anywhere if 您 wait an hour to read them. A good percentage of the problems from 电子邮件超载 is  getting interrupted constantly.

如果我有很多员工，我会认真考虑设置电子邮件服务器，以便每小时仅在每小时的顶部将邮件放入他们的邮箱一次。这将保留电子邮件的大部分优势，而不会产生持续不断的随机中断。

训练自己

电子邮件过载通知的不断中断是它会训练您不要启动需要深入关注的项目。所以最终发生的事情是：您开始考虑开始一个项目，而您的大脑说“等待！如果收到电子邮件怎么办？”。下意识地，您检查电子邮件图标以查看是否有任何新消息。您准备开始该项目，您的大脑说，“you’d better look in 您r inbox just to make sure.” Pretty soon 您’ve spent 15 minutes doing pretty much 不hing but feeling like 您 were working.

Go ahead and shut down 您r 电子邮件 program for a while when 您 need to be working. The 电子邮件s will all come through just fine once 您 turn it back on. But if the program isn’加载后，回头再去查看邮箱就容易多了。

I’m speaking from experience here. In writing the last two paragraphs, I caught my eyes wandering over to check my mailbox at least three times. Give it a try. Close 您r 电子邮件, only open it intentionally, and see if 您 start getting more done.

唐’t Repeat Yourself

如果您发现自己一次又一次地发送相同的消息，请找到某种方法来停止重复自己。您可以采取任何减少您处理邮件时间的措施来减少电子邮件过载的影响。您可以使用模板回答常见问题。这可以像带有少量预写消息的文本文档一样简单，您可以在需要时简单地复制和粘贴。大多数客户关系管理系统都有实际的模板’可以在其中使用包含收件人的模板来回复邮件的系统’问候中的名字。这是一些有关创建的信息 Outlook中的模板. 这是一个模板程序 苹果邮件。

另一方面 不 repeating 您rself is to see if 您 can stop the questions in the first place. Can 您 add a FAQ section to 您r website to answer common questions? Is there somewhere that needs clarified instructions to reduce questions? Sometimes simply changing a few words in instructions can make a big difference in the number of people who get confused.

保留记录

Customer relationship management systems can track all 电子邮件s to and from particular person. This can be very helpful because it lets 您 view things in a recipient-focused context instead of chronologically. 雷伦塔 是一个可以做到这一点的系统’ve在 过去.

有时，进行历史记录会很有用 封存 of all of 您r 电子邮件 messages for the 过去 year. Sometimes this can make it more comfortable deleting messages that are several years old. If 您 know 您 can go back and find a message if 您 absolutely need it, there is a lot less discomfort in clearing out those messages 您 just might need sometime, but probably won’t.

Outlook lets 您 do this using .PST files. You can also print a collection of 电子邮件s to a file or PDF for storage before deleting them.

结论

电子邮件 is part of our daily lives and definitely 不 a fad that is going to go away. It is unlikely that 您’ll be getting fewer 电子邮件s 18 months from now.  Carefully managing 您r mailboxes and 电子邮件 habits can help make sure 您 are getting the productivity benefits of 电子邮件 without letting it turn into a huge time sink.

What methods do 您 use to manage 您r 电子邮件 that work well?